After 5 years as a public health nurse, you have just been appointed as supervisor of the western region of the county health department. There is one supervisor for each region, a nursing director, and an assistant director. You have eight nurses who report directly to you. Your organization seems to have few barriers to prevent staff empowerment, but in talking with the staff that report to you, they frequently express feelings of powerlessness in their ability to effect lasting change in their patients or in changing policies within the organization. Your fi rst planned change, therefore, is to develop strategies to empower them.